PM Lee urged Singaporeans who are terminally ill to consider end-of-life options
November 9th, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said during a speech at Assisi Hospice last night that terminally ill patients should not treat death as a taboo subject.
He was speaking as the guest of honour at Assisi Hospice’s 40th anniversary charity dinner. His wife, Ms Ho Ching, is the patron of the hospice.
PM Lee urged them to discuss with their families and doctors plans for dying with dignity and under the best possible care.
He also said he felt more public education was needed about what hospice and home palliative care can do to provide comfort for patients in their last days.
With medical advances, people are living longer, but with terminal illnesses, lives can be prolonged only up to a point when ‘more aggressive treatment will likely do more harm than good’, he said.
Palliative care is a field of medicine that helps terminally ill patients live the remaining days of their lives with minimal pain and suffering. There are few specialist palliative-care physicians in Singapore.
Singapore’s aging population will put more strain on its public healthcare system which was rated one of the best in the world by the World Health Organization.
Unlike Australia, Canada or the United Kingdom, palliative care is not a recognized specialty in Singapore. The current palliative care physicians are mostly geriatricians or internists whose postgraduate training is in internal medicine.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is recruiting and training more doctors, nurses and social workers who can provide palliative care which will also be introduced to nursing homes.
Earlier this year, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan caused a furore when he suggested that Singaporeans send their aged parents to live in nursing homes in Johor Baru where medical expenses are lower. It is not sure if there are any hospices in Johor Baru which can accept Singapore patients in the future.
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43 Responses to “PM Lee urged Singaporeans who are terminally ill to consider end-of-life options”
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The stark realities of life.
Reminds me of an award winning photo some time ago from an international acclaimed magazine where an abandoned starving toddler in a African country being kept in “vigil” by a vulture next to him.
Easy prey. And many more will fal victim in the migratory queues, leaving their land for don’t know where.
How sad. Why is life like this?
very weird topic he brought up… what about his mum?
Except his own mother? Show the way.
Consider end-of-life options? Isn’t that paramount to euthanasia? Is that legal in Singapore?
Hmmm… Is LHL indicating that he is going to make that legal?
Try telling that to a parent with a terminally ill child.
Which parent will not try their very best to save their terminally ill child? Even when it will bankrupt them of their savings?
Try telling that to a person who is terminally ill, one who is still young with a long life ahead. Who would want to go and give up that slim, one-in-a-million, chance at surviving?
Try telling that to the person whose parent is lying terminally ill on the bed. If the child were to consider end-of-life options for the parent, will he/she later be sued by the terminally ill parent for being un-filial?
Does LHL even know what he is talking about?
Oh, I forget, he used to be cancer ridden. But he has the means to pay for the best medical care can offer to cure himself. Wait a minute, did he pick up that tab? Or was he covered under the CSC?
Having to hear this coming from our benevolent leader, I am SO-O-O-O inspired.
LHL, have a heart. People who are involved in the life of a person who is terminally ill is already in a lot of distress. Telling them to consider end-of-life options at a time where they are struggling to keep their love one alive is really telling about LHL and his compassion for the people who elected him to where he is today.
I wonder, if his wife were to tell him to consider end-of-life options when he was stricken with cancer, what would have gone thru his mind then?
Shez~~~!
Honest, caring, inclusive and loving aging citizenry advice to make way for more younger FOREIGN PRs?
Aging in Singapore now has got a new definition – it is called past your economically use-by date.
Singapore can endeavour to be Asia’s Euthanasia Hub! Bring in more money if the terminally ill rich want to end their lives but don’t want to travel to Europe.
Can the author include the PM’s quote where he directly or indirectly imply that he “urged Singaporeans who are terminally ill to consider end-of-life options” ?
Otherwise I think the title is misleading . The article does not seem to co-relate with what the title suggested.
Hey,HOTA is coming soon.
They need a source of organs for rich people.
The way he talk and laugh looks like a Political Clown!
It is not the same as euthanasia. It is about maintaining the quality of life as far as possible.
Does terminally imply those who can’t afford the going-to-be-grossly INFLATED medical costs only that medical “tourism?”
would bring about?
Has medicine become a frivolous profession?
Are we not encouraging never-ending greed in place of true
medical compassion for the lives of the sick persons?
…hope it does not end up like as the NEW WALLSTREET?
..we are not by-products of a mere production line waiting
to be discarded or as Anonymous said so clearly to be rid of once we reach used-by date…what is retirement plan for then,if when we reach retirement age,we would are to consider
making ourselves scarce!!!
Hey1 we are human-beings,not just some “raw materials” for making others rich!!!
they wanna replace elderly singaporeans with compliant foreigners
time for change, vote opposition
maybe LKY should consider end-of-life options cos his son is so goddamn stupid
What is he going to with his mother? Perhaps one set of rules for the ruling elites and another set for the masses?
LHL’s autistic albino son should consider end-of-life options because he is useless and will not contribute to the economy
if that is the case why not let the old woman die also. Why keep her alive?
I think what he meant was:
Those DYING, USELESS and POOR should get the fiack out of my face and make way for the Foreign Elites, FTs and PRs because Sinkapore is a small island!
By staying alive and hogging space and resources, thyey are a liability to the famiLEE, Society & Gahment.
Older folks who have worshipped MM Lee as GOD, if you are reading this, THINK:
1st. They tell you to live in nursing homes in Johor Baru.
2nd. Then , they tell you to go die faster.
Apparently those old, sick and poor are now useless to the PaPies as they have ALREADY given 40 years of mandate to the PaPies. Now that they can no longer vote from their dying bed, they are USELESS to the PaPies and should be discarded like a used toilet paper.
No your mother is different you stay in a garment hospital so garment subsidies part of your fee.If no hope better go early dont waste “My Money”.
But my mother different we got lots of money to spent to keep her alive.
Remember one time the mother got a stroke in UK, The spore mission in UK contact the British Health Minister to get special treatment to get admitted to hospital.
If it is your mother or my mother sorry lah have to go the proper channel get a number and wait for you turn.
Please state sources or allow others to verify the speech independently. Thanks
Tan Yeong Hong,
How does a poor person pay for an organ transplant????
——————————————
No One Will Be Left Behind
http://news.asiaone.com/News/NDP+Rally+2007/NDP+Rally+2007.html
To nocityforoldmen,
I have the same querie as you as well… so a quick search from google give me the link below.
Thou the link below did not quote PM Lee’s exact words, but judging from the source (asiaone), I don’t think his exact words are too far from what is stated.
http://news.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20091109-178621.html
Generally I would like to bash them too. But looking at the contents objectively, I can’t concur with the author of the TR article.
It seems to be skewing the PM’s words. Assuming that AsiaOne reported correctly. Be careful of defamation suits instead.
————————–
TERMINALLY ill patients should not treat death as a taboo subject, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.
Instead, he urged them to discuss with their families and doctors plans for dying with dignity and under the best possible care.
He also said he felt more public education was needed about what hospice and home palliative care can do to provide comfort for patients in their last days.
Hi all,
PM Lee’s speech was extracted from The Straits Times today word for word. They were not skewed or distorted in anyway:
TERMINALLY ill patients should not treat death as a taboo subject, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.
Instead, he urged them to discuss with their families and doctors plans for dying with dignity and under the best possible care.
He also said he felt more public education was needed about what hospice and home palliative care can do to provide comfort for patients in their last days.
With medical advances, people are living longer, but with terminal illnesses, lives can be prolonged only up to a point when ‘more aggressive treatment will likely do more harm than good’, he said.
This is where palliative care comes in. Whether at home or in the hospice, such care allows patients to live out their final days ’surrounded by love and not full of tubes, masks and drugs’, he said at a dinner for one of Singapore’s oldest and most established hospices.
Why didn’t he tells his “terminally” lousy investor wife to terminate her tenure in TH?
We’ll end up saving a lot of monies for singapore and perhaps could save a few more singaporeans that are sick.
Sick of this BS!Its time the PAP regime know the true people’s power!Its time we resist and stop this political oppression, cos if you fear dying then you’re already dead!
he expects people to be attracted to singapore knowing that when they are dying, their relatives here might finish them off like in the movies or rather pull the plug out.
What a joke.
This is the kind of shit we put in govt.
letting people stay in JB for medical care?
Why don’t they release the cpf monies and let singapore stay in JB for retirement?
Whatever it is,in an ageing population scenario,medical costs need to be accessible to all Singaporeans.
As more singaporeans are now singles,they may not have the luxury of home-care,so where do they receive decent affordable
pallative care?
ultimately,death comes to one and all;rich or poor.
no one has an option except to choose to die in a humanly dignified and natural way.
If the PM or our POLICY MAKERS do not endorse or imply EUTHANASIA,then i am fully agreeable not to increase the burden of family or societal medical cost burden.
For whatever reason, in the end of every election, Lee still wins hand down. They knew Singaporean are very stupid, pathetic and afraid to change. So what the point of complaining for nearly 40 years, and yet it is still the same. what changes are you talking about? If there is changes, it should have happen long long time ago, no need to put it in the Temasek Review, waste of time.
There is nothing wrong with the article. The problem lies with some of the readers, who start bashing the govt without even understanding what the article is about.
In this case, there is absolutely nothing wrong with what LHL said. Raising awareness about palliative care is very different from suggesting that the “DYING, USELESS and POOR should get the fiack out of my face”. In fact, I personally feel the govt should do more to discuss the issue of euthanasia instead of avoiding it like a hot potato.
I urge fellow readers to be more rational and less biased in your views.
No point dragging on and make your family suffer if your quality of live is so bad, that it is a living hell for your love one too.
I will encourage that individual to end it, give yourself some dignity, it takes courage to do it so not everyone can.
I think TR you are giving chance to LSL. LOL.
Lucky you never put a more striking title that says “LSL ask the terminally ill to go and die”. It goes to say you are not greedy by sensationalizing header to capture readership. God job.
You have grown in maturity and we hope you become “Singaporkini” soon.
Those who die on the bed they regularly sleep on are VERY LUCKY. Those who die elsewhere DO NOT HAVE ANY CHOICE OR OPTION.
This is reality.
The current law is against euthanasia.
I hope this law is repealed, so that those patients who rather have a painless death rather than going thru prolonged months or even years of pain (e.g. slowly destroyed by painful cancer) can exercise this option.
Unfortunately certain religious people are lobbying for this law to remain. These religious people refused to respect other people’s differing convictions on this issue.
Hinduism and Atheism has no problem with termainally illed patients to choose euthanasia (e.g. injecting themselves with chemicals to die painlessly). Hope other religions could allow them the freedom of choice to die this manner.
I suggest the PM’s family and MM’s family consider taking their end-of-life options ASAP as they have lived past their usefulness and are like a cancer to the Singapore society.
“We have to be realistic. There is a limit to how much re-training we can do for some workers, so we have to look overseas. Look at my generation, more than half of them didn’t even complete primary school education. What are we going to do? They are not going to conveniently die off…”
Mr. Bilahari Kausikan, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shocking reply above, when asked about the impact of outsourcing on our local population.
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Nothing new here. The MIW and their stooges have always been requestly Singaporeans who are not productive to kill themselves. Same old story.
Of course they won’t mention it just before elections.
reader on Mon, 9th Nov 2009 5:25 pm
“In fact, I personally feel the govt should do more to discuss the issue of euthanasia instead of avoiding it like a hot potato.”
Precisely. So why aren’t they discussing it? For fear of some groups (read religious) backlash? Remember the Aware saga?
I know of an “old testament” common religion that’s against it in their constitution. Don’t know about other religions though.
//reader
As if this kind of things need discussion and pushing from the govt.
It is a personal choice and a private choice.
We don’t need the govt to tell us what to do here.
The weighing comes from the individuals not the govt.
Tell LHL to do something more useful for the country.
We all know he is trying the few medical dollars with this talk.
// fpc
Of cuz, it needs to be discussed on public forum. Do you mean there is a choice to end one’s own life through assisted suicide?
There is none. The only choices are to continue go for medical treatments or to stop the treatments. So if I make this personal decision to end my own life at the point when I am effectively an invalid, will the government permit that?
Some people here are just government bashing for the sake of bashing. Mob mentality, which makes them no better than the ones blindly supporting the government.
//eterna2
of course, if one is too sick to move, there is nothing the sick could do.
However, if the family members wants to do something, who can stop them?
LHL was referring to the family members not the sick person.
As if you love your wife so much, and didn’t want her to die, you wouldn’t risk all your wealth to save?
As if you love your wife so much and you didn’t want her to die, you wouldn’t risk prison or death by finishing her off.
We have seen all these scenarios in real life.
What can the govt do?
LHL is just trying to save some monies and improve the population profile.
DYING? with DIGNITY? Please, Let Singaporeans LIVE with DIGNITY first. ok paper General?
Dear fpc:
I think you may not be fully aware of the different issues in euthanasia.
Sometimes, TERMINALLY ILL patients who are clear of mind have no desire to wait out their inevitable end. Their rationale is that since they are clearly dying soon, why should they suffer the indignity of further pain? Why can’t they choose the moment they are ready, and then go peacefully?
A particular case I read about involved a young lady who was suffering from colon cancer, and who was refused euthanasia. In her final moments, she was vomiting faeces from her mouth because her intestinal tract is already stuck. Can you imagine how that must have felt? And how her family must have felt having to witness that?
Proponents of euthanasia argue that we allow animals to be put down to end their suffering. But humans don’t even get that right. In most countries, euthanasia is ILLEGAL. You cannot even help a family member to end his life, because then you will become a criminal too and you WILL be convicted.
Thus it is imperative that the govt actively discusses euthanasia, because laws will need to be changed if euthanasia is allowed. However, the govt is avoiding the topic, because they fear the backlash from the religious communities.
Hope you can understand now why the whole issue is not about private choice or about the govt telling us what to do.